Lettuce recall expands to Tennessee

WASHINGTON (May 12, 2010)—The outbreak of E. coli poisoning has expanded to
Tennessee, where one more person has been sickened after eating romaine
lettuce grown on an Arizona farm.

The federal Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention says there are 23 confirmed cases of E. coli and
seven probable cases connected to the tainted lettuce. That is up from
19 confirmed by CDC earlier this week.

The rest of those sickened
live in Michigan, Ohio and New York. Many of them were middle school,
high school and college students who ate in school cafeterias. The CDC
said there are 10 confirmed cases in Michigan, eight confirmed cases in
Ohio, four confirmed cases in New York and one confirmed case in
Tennessee. All of those sickened became ill before late April.

The
strain of E. coli involved in the outbreak is rare and difficult to
diagnose, so there may be more unreported cases, officials have said.

There
have been two recalls of romaine lettuce related to the outbreak, both
by distributors who bought lettuce from the same Yuma, Ariz., farm.
Ohio-based Freshway Foods announced a 23-state recall of romaine lettuce
last week, while Vaughn Foods of Moore, Okla., announced a recall
Monday.

Vaughn Foods bought its lettuce from California-based
Andrew Smith Co., a supply company which shipped the lettuce after
purchasing it from the Arizona farm. The Food and Drug Administration,
which is investigating the outbreak, has so far declined to give the
name of the farm.

Andrew Smith Co. would not say if they supplied
romaine lettuce to Freshway Foods. Amy Philpott, a spokeswoman for
Andrew Smith Co., said the company did sell the lettuce to an additional
distributor in Massachusetts but would not identify that distributor
because the lettuce is already past its expiration date.

The FDA
said it is still attempting to determine the point in the supply chain
where the contamination occurred, since it went through several
facilities before it was eaten. As a supplier, Andrew Smith Co. buys
bulk romaine lettuce from farms and sells it to distributors. Those
distributors, such as Freshway Foods and Vaughn Foods, then sell it to
food service outlets or retail customers.

Many of those who became
ill were college students in the three states. Middle and high school
students in New York were also sickened, including a 15-year-old and a
17-year-old who developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can cause
bleeding in the brain or kidneys. Local health authorities in Dutchess
County, N.Y., where the students fell ill, said they are all expected to
make a full recovery.

The E. coli was discovered by New York
health authorities in a bag of Freshway Foods shredded romaine lettuce
last week after they had been investigating the outbreak in the schools
for several weeks.

Most of the lettuce recalled was sold to food
service establishments. The recall does not affect bagged lettuce in the
grocery store.

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